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MORGANTOWN -- On Monday night the NCAA will decide its champion for the 2023 season when Michigan meets Washington in Houston, but it just might be that neither of the combatants will be the most physical team to play in the Texas city within a week.
Instead, West Virginia's men's basketball team finds itself scheduled to open its Big 12 season with the Houston Cougars, the nation's No. 3 team in both polls and they have gotten there by being every bit as physical as either of those football teams.
Just drawing No. 3 in the nation is enough of a challenge for a Big 12 opener, no matter what jersey they wear, for a WVU team that is still working out the kinks in who it is and what it can be.
But it does understand one thing about itself. It isn't going to be beating teams by being physical with them.
At full strength WVU is more of a guard-oriented team than you usually find coming out of the WVU locker room and with their top big man, Jesse Edwards, still unavailable due to a broken bond in his right wrist, they match up more like a welterweight with one hand tied behind its back going against the heavyweight champion in a boxing match.
With the game being played in Houston, it is safe to assume going in that the Cougars will own the boards in the matchup, as they have all season. They lead the nation in rebounding with 45.88 per game while WVU collects just 37.1 per game. And the Houston rebounding margin is 8 per contest while the Mountaineers are even in rebounds gained and given up, ranking 222nd in the NCAA.
Interim coach Josh Eilert has spent his time since the tough loss to Ohio State that dropped his team to 5-8 watching the Cougars play and understands the nature of the beast … and beast is the proper word when referring to Houston.
"The Texas A&M game with them was the most physical game I've seen all year on film. Going to games like this you worry that is going to be called. That's going to be critical for us. I said it going into the UMass game, as physical as they will be depends upon how it's called by the officials.
"If the officials let things go early, it will be to Houston's benefit."
As we have learned over the years, you don't rely on officials for anything.
And, it doesn't figure that RaeQuan Battle has enough of that magic dust he's been spreading around while averaging 27 points a game since being made eligible three games back to overcome that.
In fact, Battle may not be the most important Mountaineer on the court, that title perhaps belonging to Pat Suemnick, who is the Zach Frazier of this WVU basketball team.
Not very effective when he got off the bench earlier this year, Suemnick darn near stole the game away from Ohio State when he came off the bench last Saturday to score eight second-half points and fight the fight on the boards.
"That's 100% what I kind of expected out of Pat this season," Eilert said on Thursday. "Every time he steps on the floor and gets more time and more confidence, it will be to his benefit and to our benefit. I think the time against Ohio State was huge. He scored 8 points, even got the game-tying bucket late in regulation. That's got to go a long way with him and with our program and our trust in him."
With Edwards out, the cast was expected to be removed on Thursday, but there are tests to be studied to see how the healing process has gone. Suemnick figures to be thrown out there to fight the Houston rebounders.
"He's our biggest, strongest guy on the floor. He's going to be critical to success in the game against Houston and how physical they play," Eilert said. "From our standpoint he had to bring that same physicality to them and match them head on."
Look for Suemnick to see playing time against Houston to match the career-high 27 minutes he played against Ohio State.
"Hopefully, we can continue to build on that and he gets some more confidence," Eilert said in the moments after the game. "With Jesse out, this is an opportunity to get more playing time and help his team."